


You Can't Have a Say in Your Genetics

by orphan_account



Category: X-Men
Genre: Cherik - Freeform, Comas - Freeform, Cynical Stuff, Erik becomes a Dumbledore (headmaster), Feels, Hank gets a girlfriend, Multi, Mutation trouble, Not sure where in the X-Men timeline this is, Raven always dates the bad guys, Sadness, Wing-women unite!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-04-02
Packaged: 2018-03-20 08:07:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3642930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Erik both and a rebel sniper are shot by the same man, there is spreading belief of a mutant experimentation organization on the rise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“So what exactly are we doing here?” Erik murmured into Charles’ ear as they walked into the library. Though it was completely normal for Charles to go to the library every other day for something or other, today was different because he hadn’t told Erik what they there for.

“I need to ask the librarian something; I’ll be right back.” Charles stepped over to the librarian’s desk where they started a conversation, ending in her giggling like a love-struck teenager. Erik’s face turned scarlet so he ducked behind a bookshelf and pretended to be looking at a book.

As Charles rounded back, he didn’t look like he had just charmed a girl but as if he was disappointed.

“She didn’t have what I was looking for. It’s alright though… Are you reading Twilight?” Charles asked. Erik hurriedly put the book back on the shelf.

“What were you looking for?” Erik tried to recover by distracting Charles. In response he bit the inside of his lip and glanced out the side of his eye.

“Uh… I’ll tell you later. It’s not something I can ask the librarian without her needing my ID.” Charles whispered in order to retain confidentiality. 

“You drove us here! What do you mean you don’t…” Erik began to raise his voice but was silenced when Charles squared his jaw and flicked his eyes towards the desk.

“I have my ID for driving and actual identification, but this kind of ID is different.” Charles kept nervously turning his head to anyone who may have been listening. 

“So this is some sort of government matter? Why are you interested in that?” said Erik quizzically. There was some sort of signal from Charles that made Erik drop the subject. 

Suddenly, a siren rang throughout the library, causing everyone to create a state of panic. Erik began to walk out of the building but Charles pulled him back by the hem of his jacket sleeve. 

“What are you doing?” Erik said bewilderedly from behind his shoulder. Charles seemed to only be communicating with his eyes for some reason, and this time they were pointing to the second level of the library on the railing. There perched a young female sniper, her pistol pointed directly at them.

“It’s glass, I can’t do anything. Try to control her or something!” Erik muttered hurriedly. There was visible effort showing on the telepath’s face as he tried to enter her mind, a movement you could normally never tell was occuring. Apprehensively, Erik’s eyes flicked to the right and flashed with surprise; standing to the left of Charles was a second sniper with a glass loaded gun.

“Charles…!” Erik pushed him away from the line of fire but a bullet was already aimed at where Charles’ heart was, which meant it entered through Erik’s rib cage. The girl stood, frozen, while she watched the metal-bender double over. The male assassin turned and growled at her. She picked up her loaded gun with her shaking hand, then paused. Looking down at her glass handgun, she shook her head and dropped it off the balcony and began to run for the stairs. Unfortunately she couldn’t escape the glass bullets that were aimed at her. 


	2. Erik Gets A Roommate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erik gets a roommate in the hospital wing of the mansion-Casi, the young sniper. Also, a note from Charles leads Erik to think there may be an impending problem in their midst.

“Erik…” a soothing male voice spoke from beside him. Erik tried to open his eyes and look over at the source of the words. By the time he turned over, Charles was gone and in his place was a note placed in his left hand.

   

>     _You’re okay Erik, Hank and I just need to make sure infection doesn’t set in. I’m going to be out for the day; I have some important business to attend to. Just yell for Hank or Logan if you need anything. Oh, by the way, you have a roommate._

 

    Erik stared at the note again, glanced at the door, then to his right and was startled to see the teenage sniper breathing shallowly in the bed adjacent his. Her hazel hair fell over her cheek and off the side of the mattress. Erik counted five different bandages over bullet hole entries. _She can’t be more than sixteen…_ he realized. A pang of pity and-for some reason, pride-swept through him in waves. The girl groaned and turned over, wincing with each movement. When she moved to the right, her morphine drip detached itself from her arm. Erik felt a strange compulsion to put it back in, but it was almost impossible for him to get up.

    You got shot once; she got shot five times. Do the right thing, Erik, he mentally willed himself on. He groaned as he got to his feet and silently thanked Charles that he didn’t put him in a hospital gown. Reaching over to where the morphine was beginning to pool on the floor, Erik attached the drip back into her arm. What Erik didn’t expect to have happened was for the girl to turn over and murmur a drowsy “Thank you.”

    Not knowing how to react to this type of behavior in people towards him, Erik simply nodded and sat back down on the bed. For some reason, Erik picked up Charles’ note and examined-and maybe admired-the elegant cursive written on the piece of paper. He kept looking at the way the writing changed when Charles wrote the word “business”. This made him wonder what he was doing. _Maybe it’s about that government issue,_ Erik thought, his mind straying to why Charles could be possibly interested in what the U.S government was doing unless it had anything to do with mutants or something morally unjust that only mutants could right.        

    “Your name is Erik, right?” the girl whispered, effort straining in her voice. Erik looked over his shoulder and saw she had been shot just above the collarbone. Her voice must have been melodious and beautiful, for there were times when an inkling of that would come through.

    “Yes.” he responded, not wanting to strike up a conversation for various reasons. She turned over to face him and he almost was blinded by the concentration of green in her irises. The hazel hair was probably in a braid most of the time due to the length of it. Erik thought she rather looked like Raven’s default. Logan decided to come and check on both of them at that moment and found himself standing in the middle of a silent room with the two injured staring at each other quizzically.

    “I think I’m missing something here… Did you have another kid?” Logan interrupted gruffly. The girl stared at Logan until he became unnerved. Erik look back at her and, though he didn’t look at himself in the mirror much, realized she did look like him.

    “No, I’m pretty sure she’s a mutant though.” Erik said, just to see what her reaction might be.

    “You’re calling me a mutant? I don’t think I am. I’d have been killed a long time ago, you know-” Hank stepped into the room as well.

    “Casi, you’re going to want to rest your voice. It will only get better if you do, okay?” Hank reprimanded. Looking between the two of them, Erik began to think Casi was as old as Hank, just very well kept; like a china doll. Logan set down a glass of water, Tylenol and Advil on each of the bedside tables.

    “I’m only doing this because Charles told me I had to. Do not speak about it at all, or I will rip your fu…” Logan stopped when Hank glared at him intensely.

    “-Reaking head off.” he spat. Logan left the room immediately afterwards, leaving Hank to run some simple tests. After they were done, Erik felt the need to ask the question that was burning in the back of his mind after he read the note.

    “Where’s Charles?” Erik said after Hank forced him to lie down.

    “It was in the note... Right?” Hank seemed like he wanted to know the same thing. _Wait. I know Hank didn’t come in here after Charles did, so how did he know about the contents of the note?_   Erik suddenly realized that Charles must’ve been gone for even longer than when he was checking on him that morning.

    “You gave me that note, didn’t you?” Erik sounded crestfallen, and he tried to cover it up by taking the Tylenol. Over in the next bed, Casi was listening, though she looked like she was asleep to the untrained eye.

    “Charles did write it though, I…” Erik interrupted Hank with the look that meant he wanted answers.

    “Where the hell is Charles?” Erik would’ve yelled but he thought Casi was asleep. The conflicted look on Hank’s face was strong, and Erik knew he was going to have to try harder than cursing and raising his voice. With the scientist and a doctor, what persuades him was facts.

“The note was folded and glued shut, it hadn’t been opened, so you couldn’t have read it unless Charles told you where he was going, or that he was going. You obviously have a back-up plan if something goes wrong, there is a different one for each place there may be danger. And Charles would never say he had business to attend to and not tell me what it was. He would know I would pry it out of someone. So, let me ask you again, where is Charles, Hank?”

“I honestly don’t know, I just assumed Charles had told you where he’d gone. The two of you are best friends, I don’t think he could keep a secret that would drive you crazy unless he had to.” Hank reasoned. As much as Erik hated to lose in an argument, he had to admit Hank was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, hey! Casi is going to be awesome when her five wounds heal. And they will, don't worry about anyone-except maybe Charles-yet. Casi may-which means will-be Erik's wing-woman through a lot of problems. Be sure to remember that sudden outburst she had when Erik said she may be a mutant, that becomes important later in the story. 
> 
> In other news, Charles may be a little more sneaky than we all realize... I wonder what he's up to. Also, Logan baby-sits in later chapters, so definitely stay tuned for that, and his delicious burnt pancakes!


	3. Uncomfortable Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Casi was asleep while Erik was interrogating Hank... Right? The day after the event, the former assassin confronts Erik on a hunch that may-or may not be-correct.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm doing this so people don't get offended by my writing before they read it. If you are homophobic or are sensitive to cursing I highly suggest you skip this chapter. It isn't important for the general plot, but it comes into play later, so I just thought I'd put it in now.

    "Hey, Erik, uh..." Casi began after their daily morning tests and breakfast. Erik was still half-asleep, so he didn't really say anything. There was a 65% chance of Erik getting breathing problems or an infection, so that was all Erik thought about when he wasn't worrying about Charles. 

    "About that one night... I was wondering... If..." Casi was incredibly scared of asking her question, especially when Erik was pretty unpredictable if the wrong thing happened. Erik turned his head to face her, one eyebrow raised in slight curiosity.

    "Yes?" Erik didn't really like talking to her all that much, mostly because she could always guess what he was about to say. 

    "I was wondering... Please don't take this the wrong way but... Do your feelings run deeper than friendship for Charles? I just couldn't help but notice that every time Hank or Logan walks through the door, you look at Charles' note." when Casi finished, she squeezed her eyes shut and looked like she was bracing herself for a beating. Erik couldn't speak for several seconds because, honestly, he wasn't sure where his feelings lay in terms of Charles and him.

     Deciding to deny it, Erik tried to look as angry as he could and began to rant furiously,"What the fuck is wrong with you? Me, in love with  _Charles_? Someone must have really messed you up, in order to think a load of shit like _that_." Casi opened her eyes and began to laugh. 

      "So you  _do_ love Charles? It's not something to be ashamed of, you know, I think you two are very compatible. And I swear I won't tell _anyone_ , I promise you." Erik wanted to glare at her, but he realized she was being a friend. 

      "I don't know anymore, really..." Erik murmured softly, before he began to seriously think about the possibility of it happening. And the more he pondered on it, the more sense it made to him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Cherik is breaking my heart! Anyway, if you can tell, Casi has been through way more than just killing people and getting shot five times. The next chapter is going to be very dramatic, so brace yourselves X-Men and Women!


	4. Children, Cuts and Charles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Charles returns to the mansion beaten up with two young children, Erik and Casi must wait until one of them is able to speak for Charles, who has fallen into a mysterious coma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... This chapter is kind of... Angsty. Also, get ready for some more mutation trouble with Casi, followed with some rare Erik action.

 

      "Erik, wake up!" Casi whispered into his ear excitedly. It was two weeks after Casi and Erik has been admitted to the hospital wing, and they could now walk around for short periods of time. Until the wounds sealed completely, however, they still had to stay. Erik had had a breakthrough in many things during that two week span: Figuring out what dubstep was, understanding women's fashion,-for some reason this was not fueled by Casi-stumbling upon Ancient Roman torture methods and, of course, figuring out what he wanted his and Charles' relationship to be like. It was still very new to him, but Casi was one of the most supportive friends he'd ever had, besides Charles.             

     "Erik, Charles is back!" Casi shook his hand gently. Erik sat up immediately and regreted that decision even faster. Casi's hair was in a long, shining hazel braid over her shoulder and her green eyes were sparkling like sunlight on water. Erik was about to stand up to go find him, but the door opened suddenly and a child who was barely breathing was wheeled into the room and hooked up to one of the advanced life support systems Casi used to have to live on.

      "Oh my god, Hank, is he okay?" Casi knew he probably wouldn't answer, but she still asked the question to show that she cared. Pietro suddenly raced into the room with a little girl who was looking down sullenly.

       "She's demanding to know what's going on here and... No, I am not Superman!" Pietro hissed, which caused her to giggle. She looked around the room and her eyes stopped on Erik, who wasn't paying attention to the her.

      "Were you shot?" she said. Casi knew that Erik didn't want to answer the question, so she responded for him.

      "We both were. What happened to your friend?" she asked charmingly. The girl shrugged and turned her attention back to Erik.

      "Why were you shot? You don't look like you've done anything wrong." Erik turned his head to look at her. His dismissive nature kicked in and he stared dully at her.

      "I didn't get shot." Erik gave Pietro a signal with his body language-shooing his hand towards the door-that told him to get her out. When they were gone, Erik laid down and stared at the ceiling.

      "He'll be in at one point, Erik, it's okay." Casi assured him soothingly. Though she had obviously never had been a parent, Casi was very motherly.

      "Yeah, I guess..." Erik muttered. Well, Charles did come into the hospital wing. He was dragged there by Logan and Hank unconsciously.

 

      "What happened to him?" Casi spoke for Erik, for he couldn't say anything as another bed was wheeled in next to his. Charles had burns and slashes across his face and other visible parts of his body.

      "We don't know, he just kept rambling before he passed out. He's been through a lot, Erik, and we know the kids have something to do with it." Hank explained quietly, checking back on the also unconscious boy across from Casi's bed. Sorrowful rage began to boil inside of him, burning and festering like liquid fire.

       "How long...?" he whispered mournfully. Hank turned back and apologized silently. Casi put her hand up to her mouth and looked at Erik.

       "He's hurt pretty badly, we think this might be the work of a mutant." Hank murmured, but Erik wasn't listening. _Charles, you can't hide these things from us... From_  me, Erik thought.

      "He'll be okay for now... Just... Keep an eye on him for a while, will you?" Logan wasn't normally so sensitive, but seeing the professor in a partial coma unraveled his "tough guy" attitude.

      "Erik..." a gruff, groggy voice woke Erik up in the middle of the night. When he turned over, he saw Charles was practically asleep, so it was almost like a randomly uttered word. Erik's heart raced and a tingle ran throughout his body.

      "You're okay..." Erik was grinning like a child, and he was partially glad there wasn't much light in the room. Charles was breathing in a slurred manner caused by the anesthesia and antibiotics, so Erik decided to make sure he didn't choke.

      "It's 1:27; go back to sleep Erik." Casi turned over and mumbled, half-asleep. There was some merit to her bluntness, as Erik probably wouldn't go to sleep now that Charles had done something.

      "Maybe I should tell Hank..." Erik began, not paying attention to Casi.

      "Is he awake?" the boy asked from across the room, almost startling Casi off the side of her bed.

      "Erik, Charles is alright, you need to go back to bed." said Casi. Nothing followed that, as Erik decided to listen that that time.

 

      A heavy gasp was heard from the boy's bed the next morning. Erik and Casi's heads jerked off their pillows, and funnily enough each of them moaned in unison because of some sort of pain. The child's head lifted, his face covered in dark, chocolatey curls.

      "Where am I? What happened to my parents? How did I get this?" he lifted his arm up to expose the morphine drip hanging from it. When he looked at Erik, relief washed over his face.

      "Mr. Lehnsherr, where are we? And who are they? And when did I get a bracelet?" the boy spoke a mile a minute and didn't stop until Erik pursed his lips together and turned his head to look at Charles.

       "Hey, do you know what happened to Charles?" Casi said cheerily. The boy smiled and almost began to tell them but Hank wheeled him out for testing.

       "Dammit, why can't we know?" Casi growled at the ceiling. The surgical tools on a tray began to float in the air and move in dangerous, threatening ways.

       "Erik, stop! He will tell you eventually, but the wait is not so bad to the point where you gauge your eyes out!" Casi raised her voice accordingly as they began to settle on the open door.

       "Are you Erik Lehnsherr?" The girl suddenly appeared. The tools dropped back on the tray when Erik let out a disgusted sigh.

       "Clarice! Pietro! Someone get her out of here now!" hollered Erik. After Pietro swept in and out, there was a flashing light that left him speechless-and practically blind, for that matter-that was followed by Casi hyperventilating.

      "What just happened?" Erik panted after he regained his voice and vision. When he looked over to Casi's bed, he saw that she was curled up and shivering, staring at her hands.

      "I... I did... I did that... What did I do...? Erik, what am I?" she whispered, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. Do something, Erik thought. He didn't have much experience with comforting people-at all, really-so the best he could think of was try and take a page out of Charles' book. Or maybe half a page.

       "Mutants may be hunted or hated, but that doesn't mean you should be afraid for and of yourself. Actually, I think it would boost your confidence significantly. And we don't even know if that was you, it could have been some sort of side-effect of an antibiotic or something." Erik waited to see if his technique worked.

       "No, it was... It was me. I felt it, it surged through my hands because I was... I don't know. But it was me. I'm a.. A mutant." she sobbed. The hazel braid suddenly grew a scarlet streak. Erik wasn't sure if he should tell her, but when she looked up she saw it in the ends.

       "What... Erik what just happened...?" she gazed at her braid in shock and a fresh wave of tears began. This was when a fatherly instinct-one of Erik's rarest feelings-surged through him. Deciding that hysterical girls didn't need reassuring words, Erik stepped over to her bed and wrapped one arm around her. Casi sniffled and laid her head on his broad shoulder.

       "Erik... How do you deal with this... Your mutation... I don't think I can handle it." she whispered hoarsely.

       "You're just discovering your new self out, you'll smooth everything out before long, I promise." Erik soothed. These actions felt weird, but right for the situation. When Hank finally wheeled the boy back into the room, he was pleased to see Erik and Casi talking to each other in a normal conversation.

 

       A few more days had past since Charles return and he still hadn't woken up. Fortunately, Erik had healed with no infection or respiratory problems. Though he could've moved back to his dorm room, he decided to keep an eye on Casi, Charles and the boy, whose name he found was Cecil. Around the school they were called the "3 C's".

        Casi was steadily recovering, but there were times in the night when there would be a flash of light and the temporary disabling of the senses. Each time Erik woke up, he found she had a new streak of red hair.

       One day, Cecil was well enough to talk about what happened without coughing his lungs out. Erik sat up-finally at a quick, painless speed-and blocked out all other distractions.

       "So me and Kayt-the red-haired girl, y'know-had just come home from school and we were going over to her house, when..." Cecil stopped and began to cough with extreme vigor.

       "Take it easy, son. We have all day to listen." Erik patted the air with his hand, but honestly he wanted him to know what happened to Charles as quickly as he could. The reason why they hadn't asked Kayt was because, apparently, her memory had been wiped almost clean.

       "Okay... So we were walking home from school and this man comes by with a picture of both of our parents. I know, stranger danger, but he said they were in trouble and only we could help them. We followed him to this old shack and Kayt and I were really, really scared. We went inside and no one was there, but he locked the door behind us and tied us to two chairs. And... And... He pointed a gun at us and made us tell him what our mutations were. I didn't know what he was talking about, so he began playing a game, he called it Russian Roulette. The gun clicked, and I kept telling him I didn't know, I really didn't, and it clicked again and... I swear it shot out a bullet. I swear it did. I think everything just froze, then it was gone and instead of the man, Charles was there, he had burns and cuts all over him, but he untied us and brought us back here." Cecil concluded, on the verge of having a coughing fit again. _Oh Charles... If you didn't get those burns from saving them, where the hell did you get hurt?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Charles, you sly dog! Hiding things from your closest confidants, now are we? 
> 
> Anyhow, get ready for... -drum roll, please- Pietro and Logan joint baby-sitting!


	5. Feelings Are Like Mutations-They Cannot Be Contained Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Casi is part of a failed mutation removal experiment, Erik rampages the hospital room out of rage-and commits another action out of love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, fellow mutants! 
> 
> I want to put out there that I LOVE constructive criticism and suggestions. I'm writing for YOU, do keep in mind. So, that being said, COMMENT! I would love to know what you want to happen! Just so you know, I do not write smutty things, I will implement SOME kissing if you want/need it, however. One last thing: Cherik is a big chunk of this chapter plot and into some of the next, so... Don't say I haven't warned you. But, why would you be reading this if Cherik is a tag? Because disclaimers!
> 
> Now that me telling you stuff is done, read on!

   "Erik, I..." Hank began timidly. The metal-bender's face turned crimson with anger as Hank came into the hospital wing. She was in a coma and hadn't come out of it for several hours. _Apparently_   she had asked Hank to take away her mutation, and _apparently_ Hank thought he could do it. Obviously, the experiment had failed.

     "Look at her! She's barely hanging on _with life support_ and do you know who made this all possible? _You,_ you did this! I'm not even sure _what_ you did, but she could  _die_ from this! Casi is not your lab rat, Hank, she is a human being!" Erik bellowed, rage bubbling and festering to the point where it bubbled over the top. This kind of incident had not happened for quite some time with Erik, and somewhere inside it felt good for him to vent all the emotions he had been keeping inside for the past few months. When Erik looked intensely at Hank, he found that there was a slight blue tinge to his normally pale complexion. The better side of him tried to make him apologize for his outburst, but the more powerful side of Erik didn't feel the least bit sorry for what he said.

   "She begged me to... She didn't give me a reason why she wanted her mutation gone, but..." Hank couldn't summon up enough strength to go on. The miniscule amount of self-control burned up in the rage flaming inside Erik. The beds and life support systems began to crumple downwards, in the slowest way possible. All the surgical tools and Casi's abandoned reading glasses flew up into the air and contorted until rendered absolutely useless. Every ounce of metal in the room was being controlled by Erik's magnetism, and Hank knew the next thing he would destroy were human beings, so he wheeled Cecil out, but couldn't come back for Charles, as the door slammed shut behind him due to the stainless steel handle. A few seconds after that Erik calmed down and the metal dropped onto the floor in unrecognizable chunks. Erik sat down on his crushed bed and looked at the destroyed room around him. _I'm a monster,_ he realized, and his eyes began to burn with self-hatred and guilt. _No you aren't, Erik, you're just... Unpredictable at times,_ a voice that was not his own spoke in his head. When Erik looked over at Charles' bed, whose things were the only objects not demolished, he found the Professor sitting up wearily with a slanted smile on his face.

     "Finally, I know. I'm sorry old friend, I just..." Erik stepped over to the bed and kissed him. Everything went in slow motion for Erik, though there weren't any actions that were occurring. Charles was tense, almost scared, and definitely confused.

     "Erik..." he whispered timidly. That was his cue to leave. At least, that's what Erik thought it meant.

 

      "Is she doing better?" Cecil asked Erik bouncily. Ever since that fateful day in the hospital wing, Erik hadn't seen Charles or even spoken about him. His main focus became Casi, Cecil and Kayt, specifically in that order. As Erik tried to make Cecil's bizarre and mandatory breakfast-oatmeal with crushed folate and glutamine powder-the topic of conversation turned to Casi's state of mind before her request; a very sensitive field for Erik.

      "I'm sure she's making small recoveries." Erik responded as he set down Cecil's gray and white speckled breakfast. Neither of them liked it, but Erik wasn't a fan because of the price of the medication he had to put into it, and it generously came out of his own pocket. Cecil had asked to stay in Erik's dorm/flat, mostly because Casi was in a coma and Charles only stared at the door and said nothing. At least Erik said _something,_ even if they were German curse words. Kayt had a room near Logan and Pietro's, and as a result of the location they both looked after her on weekends.

       "I think we're out of this glutamine powder..." Erik muttered as he tried to dislodge some of it to send to with Cecil for Charles. 

       "Why does he have to eat this stuff? I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy." Cecik gagged as Erik put the bowl in his hands. All it took for him to go deliver his breakfast was a stern look and a grumpy exhale.

 

       "Oh, uh... Thank you Cecil... Would it be possible for Erik to speak to me for a few minutes?" Charles asked, trying to stay as polite as he could. "Now you say something. And no, whatever you did last month must've damaged your friendship pretty significantly; he doesn't want to even talk about you anymore." Cecil set the oatmeal down and turned to leave.

        "I want to say I'm sorry, but he won't give me a chance. Please, if you'd just try and have him come here... I would find him but I'm not allowed to get up yet." Charles pleaded. Suspended silence hung in the air for a few seconds before Cecil left without uttering a word.

       "He asked to apologize to you. I didn't say anything, so you'll probably catch him off guard if you do show up." Cecil said when he came back to Erik's flat. There was a sort of father/son connection between them, and Erik felt grateful that Cecil understood his troubles without having to ask about why.

      "That's helpful of you." Erik mumbled as he read a book on medicinal supplements for asthma. Cecil grinned and sat down on his rollout bed.

      "What did he do, anyway?" he asked, looking over some old math homework from his singed backpack.

       "Oh... Um... He really didn't do anything, I just kind off drifted while he was in a coma, you know..." Erik responded tensely. Shrugging, Cecil hopped off his bed and stood behind Erik's shoulder.

       "You could write him a note or something; I promise I won't read it." Cecil offered. The idea actually appealed greatly, and Erik contemplated what he might say in the letter.

       "Or... You could just go over there and talk to him. It should be okay if you didn't have an argument." Erik wished Cecil knew what had happened, but at the same time he didn't.

       "Well... I guess it couldn't hurt..." Erik found himself backed into a metaphorical corner. The action he had took was a huge risk, almost a friendship ending one, and he fully regretted it. But if he had known what Charles had actually felt, he might not've carried around that heavy burden of guilt.

 

       "Charles? I wanted to talk to you about... You know..." Erik closed his eyes and waited nervously outside the door of the hospital wing. There was a ruffling of bed sheets and a clatter as a book fell on the floor.

       "Oh, Erik, yeah... Uh, come in!" Charles face lit up as he stepped inside, to the point where it almost spread to Erik.

       "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for... Uh... That... Anyway, I just hadn't heard your voice for months, out loud or in my head, and... I just..." Erik faded off as Charles grinned.

       "You aren't mad?" he said with one of the most surprised tones he'd ever spoken with. Charles' laugh, though wheezier than before, still was infectious.

        "No, of course not, I'm not going to let a mindless action get in the way of our friendship. Let's just forget about it and move on, shall we?" Charles explained. Though Erik was relieved that he wasn't angry or uncomfortable, he couldn't explain why he was slightly disappointed. _Well... It's better than nothing at all,_ he nodded and sat down on the foot of his bed, accidentally causing a page from a notebook fall off the end. Charles' eyes flashed slightly and blushed, concerning Erik as to what might be on the sheet.

        Erik bent over to pick it up and give it to him, but Charles shook his head and pressed it back into his hand. A certain glint in his eye told him to keep it a secret.

 

        When Erik got to his flat, Cecil was right in front of the door when he opened it. Erik could tell he could barely contain the multitude of questions he wanted to ask. So, in order to read the note as soon as he could, Erik ruffled his hair-something he'd never done-and gave him a random pamphlet that was sitting on the table. Cecil looked at _How to Deal With Asthma_ in a confused daze.

        "What happened? Are you friends again? Did you have an argument? What did he say?" Cecil dropped the booklet back on the table and followed Erik until he rounded back and closed the door behind him, shutting Cecil back inside. Knowing Cecil wouldn't approach him when he was in one of his dismissive moods, Erik simply sat down with his back to the wall and unfolded the page.

         ~~~~

       

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No! Casi, I thought you could make good decisions! And, as an added treat/spoiler-same thing in the reading world-Erik did not make the first move. If you think back to the beginning, Charles had a bizarre and made up reason for being at the library... Also, uh, guys... I NEED HELP! I am at crossroads as to what to put on the note! So far, I have three options: make it not important until later in the next chapter, make it a subtle romantic gesture or have it explain what Charles was doing. Please vote or make another suggestion in the comments, I would appreciate it if you did!


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